Walt Disney Treasures - The Chronological Donald, Volume Three DVD Credits:

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Walt Disney Treasures - The Chronological Donald, Volume Three DVD Release Date: 16th December 2007

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Walt Disney Treasures - The Chronological Donald, Volume Three DVD Review:

The most remarkable thing about DVD is how widely it has made nearly all film available to the regular consumers. Even more than that, consumers are often offered a piece of history when they buy packages. Special features include footage and insight once kept by the filmmakers alone. While VHS certainly brought films into the homes of audiences, DVD has brought so much more; the filmmaking process. Even more remarkable is how widely accessible it is for nearly any consumer, both to own films and television programs as well as the secrets behind them. In another of many fabulous packages mapping the magical animation history of Walt Disney’s career, The Chronological Donald Volume Three brings many wonderful shorts to DVD, along with the history. Unfortunately there is a snag to how remarkable the packages are, and that is in the exclusiveness that the Disney seems to love holding over consumer’s heads with the advent of DVD.

DVD may have made entertainment widely accessible, but whether as a way to force immediate sales or to increase demand once they have sold out, there are a limited amount of the Treasures packages released. Even though the number seems rather high at 50, 000 each including a certificate of authenticity inside, many of these Treasures eventually becomes just that when they sell out and go out of print. At that point the package is a collector’s item and worth a great deal more, and perhaps this is a great marketing plan, but this along with Disney’s vault can be just as infuriating as the DVDs valuable.

Volume Three of The Chronological Donald covers 1947-1950 of the often angry duck’s career in theatrical shorts. Volume three has the introduction of several enemies of Donald, including a beetle and two chipmunks. This includes Chip An’ Dale(1947), which was an Academy Award nominated short, and one of three included in this set. Bootle Beetle also made his entrance into the cartoons during these years, and caused plenty of trouble for the duck for many years after.

Although Donald is one of the angrier Disney characters, we see another side of him in many of the cartoons, especially the sleep cartoons. Whether trying to get a night’s sleep with an impossible dripping sink or sleepwalking through the night, Donald is extremely entertaining when he is trying to sleep, and it is a great contrast to the crabby Donald we are used to. Donald also has his friends along, most often including Daisy or Goofy.

The special features on the DVD include some great rare footage of Donald from openings of the Mickey Mouse Club and a few featurettes. There are also some still frame galleries on each disc and an introduction by Leonard Maltin, the go-to film historian for Disney.

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Walt Disney Treasures - The Chronological Donald, Volume Three DVD review written by: Ryan Izay